| The Chinese dialect spoken in Fujian Province is highly complicated and Puxiandialect is one of the five subdivisions of Min dialect group. Located in the middle ofFuzhou and Xiamen, Puxian dialect, used to belong to Hokkien, evolved into a typicalmixed and transitional dialect under the pervasive influence of East Min dialect. WithMandarin Chinese being promoted in recent decades, the features of Puxian dialect is amixture of some remained from Hokkien, some influenced by East Min dialect and someof its own self-motivated changes. Previous studies put emphasis on the phonetics, lexicaland grammar of Puxian dialect, while neglecting its distinguish phonological part.This thesis starts with a general introduction, including the phonetic system that is tobe frequently resort to and distinctive features of the dialect in terms of phonetics andphonology. Puxian dialect originated from ancient Chinese and still keeps many ancientpronunciations in use. It inherited the feature of two tiers of pronunciation from Hokkien,and has undergone phonological changes resulting from the influence of East Min dialect,including the plosive onset nasalization and onset manner assimilation in connect discourse.An evident self-motivated change is the change of lateral fricative to median fricative.Within the framework of Optimality Theory, these language phenomena and changes inPuxian dialect are explained. The interacting of faithfulness and markedness constraintsjustifies the devoicing and onset manner assimilation. The Correspondence Theory andGeneralized theory, as well as the emergence of the unmarked are jointly utilized in orderto account for reduplication in Puxian dialect, which is self-unique and differentiate fromthat in other Chinese dialects. The principle of least effort is introduced in for theexplanation of the undergoing fricative change in Puxian dialect, and the principle isdecomposed into specific OT constraints for illustration. All of these may serve as a start toexplicate the language phenomena and changes in Puxian dialect within the framework ofOptimality Theory. |
